Master Timeline

For “How the Green Line Came to Crown Hill”

A background reference work

for a public art installation at the northern terminus of the Green Line

Monorail in Seattle. My commission was cancelled and the Green Line may never

be built due to general incompetence on the SMP Board. Seattle voters will probably

get their fifth chance to vote on it in November 2005, after having

already approved the idea four times.

Compiled by James Koehnline from diverse sources.

Last revised August 14, 2005.

Please email corrections, comments, suggestions and additions to:

james@koehnline.com

560 million years ago

Plants absorb solar energy and use it to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates such as sugar, starch and cellulose; these carbohydrates and other organic materials eventually settle on the ground and in stream, lake and sea beds and, as they become more deeply buried, are transformed by heat and pressure into solid, liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons known as fossil fuels.

40-17 million years ago

The Cascade Mountains are formed. The Olympic Mountains appear as islands in the Pacific.

17-6 million years ago

Floods of lava cover the Columbia Basin and destroy the Columbia River waterway.

6 million - 10,000 years ago

Washington's Ice Age. Volcanos form in the Cascades and huge glaciers cover the mountains and Puget Sound. Floods shape the southern part of the state.

80,000-60,000 years ago

Homo sapiens most likely emerged in Africa in this period. They quickly fanned out to Australia and Central Asia about 50,000 years ago and arrived in Europe only about 40,000 years ago, according to prevailing hypotheses.

77,000 years ago

Geometric carvings on stones (found 2002) and pierced-shell beads (found 2004), in Blombos Cave in South Africa, date to this time. They are the oldest human artifacts yet discovered.

50,000 years ago    

Cro-magnon man considers the horse a source of food.

Topper, South Carolina archeological dig (2004) suggests human presence in North America at this time. Very controversial.

30,000 years ago

Ivory horse, oldest known animal carving, from mammoth ivory, discovered near Vogelherd, Germany

14,000 B.C.E.    

The earliest known fossils of domestic dogs date to this time. They were found in Germany. It is impossible to know the nature and extent of human-animal partnerships up until this time, but they surely existed.

13,000 B.C.E.

Earliest evidence of the mammoth-hunting Clovis People (also known as paleo-Indians), first people in the Americas – or at least that has been the prevailing theory since Clovis dig in New Mexico, 1936.

11,000 B.C.E.

People of the Clovis Culture inhabit the Northwest

9300 B.C.E.           

Clovis people hunt the pony-sized Equus conversidens horse.

8000 B.C.E.           

The American horse, Equus conversidens becomes extinct, possibly through a combination of environmental change and overhunting.

6,700 B.C.E.

Mount Mazama erupts

6,400 B.C.E.

Kennewick Man lives. One of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever found in the Americas, found in Kennewick, Washington in 1996.

6000 B.C.E.

Egyptian rock drawings show earliest known depictions of ships.

5500-3500 B.C.E.

The wheel may have been invented in this timeframe in Mesopotamia (Iraq), although some propose an earlier date in Asia.

Already, one of civilization’s most important power sources has been developed – an essential beast of burden in human history, the human slave. The amount of energy needed to accomplish a given job is measured in slave-power, instead of horsepower.

4500 B.C.E.

Sailing ships are made in Mesopotamia.

4500-4000 B.C.E.       

Horses are domesticated in the Ukraine and Central Asia. Nomadic tribes probably gained experience with sheep, goats and/or reindeer (domesticated caribou) before attempting to herd horses. They provided meat and milk, their hides were used to make tents and clothes, and the manure could be dried to make fires. Eventually people learned to tame and ride them.

4000 B.C.E.

Petroleum used in Egypt for medicine and lamp oil

Oldest known woven cloth.

3500 B.C.E.

Animals pull wheeled vehicles in Mesopotamia. For thousands of years and many great civilizations, horses are reserved for warfare, transport and sport. Oxen (trained cattle) are used for agriculture and general labor.

In Sumer and Elam, the start of pictographic writing.

Oar-powered (slave-powered) ships sail the seas.

Earliest known paved streets (cobblestone) at Ur.

The American camelids (llamas and alpacas), the only beasts of burden native to the western hemisphere, are domesticated in the central Andes.

3300 B.C.E.

Earliest potter’s wheel that has been found - Mesopotamia

3000 B.C.E.

Egypt develops hieroglyphic writing.

People light the night with candles.

In Sumer, the first known written legend, Gilgamesh, a Noah's ark tale.

Stonehenge is built.

2750 B.C.E

First recorded expedition of exploration launched from Egypt.

2500 B.C.E.

Polynesians begin their migration throughout the South Pacific around this time

2000 B.C.E.

Earliest known use of wheels with spokes, Egypt

Egypt runs a government courier system.

Elephants are domesticated in the Indus Valley.

1500 B.C.E.

Pulley first used

Glass making invented.

1400 B.C.E.

Wheels used in Europe, possibly without knowledge of their development in the Near East.

1345 B.C.E.            

The horsemaster of Hittite king Suppililiuma, Kikkuli, begins a warhorse training regime. The Kikkuli method of training is extremely detailed and allows the Hittites to have fit horses for the war season.

1300 B.C.E.

First entirely alphabetic writing, 30 Ugaritic cuneiform symbols on tablets.

In modern-day Syria, musical notation.

1200 B.C.E.

Camel domesticated by fully nomadic Arabian Desert tribes (Bedouin).

Egyptians use pigeons for military communication.

1000 B.C.E.

Chinese using coal as fuel

The Chinese begin to fly kites.

In Greece a goat herder discovered flames shooting from cracks in the rocks in a place called Mount Parnassus. Believing the fire to be of divine origin, local residents built a temple around the flame. The temple housed a priestess known as the Oracle of Delphi who issued prophecies she said were inspired by the flame.

Stone yo-yos in Greece.

900 B.C.E.

China's Zhou Dynasty has an organized postal service for government use.

Beacon fires and smoke signals are used in China.

753 B.C.E.

Estimated founding of Rome; start of the Roman calendar.

650 B.C.E.

Olmecs, a pre-Mayan people, invent first writing system in Americas.

625 B.C.E.

First known use of asphalt for roads – Babylon.

600 B.C.E.

In Ninevah, a map of the known world, carved on clay tablet.

530 B.C.E.

In Athens, a public library.

510 B.C.E.

Scylax explores India, Arabia, and northern Afghanistan for the Persian empire.

500 B.C.E.

The Chinese discovered natural gas seeping to the surface and built crude pipelines of bamboo to transport gas to the ocean where it was burned to boil seawater separating the salt out and leaving drinkable water.

Hanno travels down the northwestern coast of Africa. Expedition recorded by Greeks. Himilco travels to England and establishes tin trade.

Greek telegraph: trumpets, drums, shouting, beacon fires, smoke, mirrors.

Persia has a form of pony express.

400 B.C.E.

Earliest known reference to the use of water wheels for milling grain, Greece

The golden age of Greek culture produces unmatched writings.

Xenophon, a Greek, writes the first fully preserved manual on horse riding, entitiled "The Art of Horsemanship". He suggests owners should learn about their horse’s psyche.

4th century B.C.E.

Greeks add England and India to their maps

The Chinese invent the first rotary, aerodynamic device, a toy that children sail through the air.

390 B.C.E.

Gauls sack Rome, destroying all records. Only legends remain.

386 B.C.E.

Plato founds the Academy

360 B.C.E.

A hollow model of a pigeon suspended by a string over a flame is made to move by steam issuing from small exhaust ports (described by Aulus Gellius in "Noctes Atticaes" (Attic Nights)

Aristotle mentions the use of a sort of air-supply diving bell in his Problemata.

356-323 B.C.E.           

Alexander the Great develops a close friendship with his horse, Bucephalus

340 B.C.E.

Aristotle's logic; it will be a source of knowledge for more than 2,000 years.

335 B.C.E.

Aristotle founds his academy, the Lyceum.

332 B.C.E.

Alexander the Great, in his famous siege of Tyre (Lebanon), uses demolition divers to remove underwater obstacles from the harbor. It is reported that Alexander himself made several dives in a crude bell to observe the work in progress.

300 B.C.E.

Toothed wheels for transmission of power attributed to Archimedes.

Euclid's Elements explain geometry.

295 B.C.E.

The great library at Alexandria is founded. Euclid teaches there.

280 B.C.E.

Aristarchus of Samos conceives of a heliocentric universe.

270 B.C.E.

Kleisbios founds science of hydraulics.

250 B.C.E.

The zero appears for the first time, in Babylonian place-value system.

Archimedes, Greek mathematics and developments of basics of physics and mechanics - water snail and endless screw.

220 B.C.E.

Archimedes, Sicilian geometrician, leaves records of his many inventions.

200 B.C.E.

Hero of Alexandria describes a simple rotary steam engine, possibly devised by Cestesibus.

Greek scientist Eratosthenes accurately measures size of the Earth.

105 B.C.E.

In Alexandria, the first college of technology is founded.

1st century A.D.

Chinese invent first compass.

14

Rome sets up network of relay runners carrying messages 50 miles in a day.

44

The wheelbarrow is invented by the Chinese.

77

Pliny the Elder mentions the use of air hoses by divers.

78

Pliny the Elder dies after compiling the known science of his time.

100

In Roman mines slaves tread the mill both to pump water and to raise ore.

Roman couriers carry government mail across the empire.

Antikythera Mechanism: apparently an astronomical calculator, Greece.

105

Supposed date for Chinese eunuch Ts'ai Lun's invention of paper

120

Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus A.D. 90 - 168) of Egypt, a mathematician and astronomer who works in Alexandria, builds the foundations of cartography. He invents a number of projections whereby an area on the curved surface of the Earth can be represented on a flat surface.

200

Horseshoes invented in Germany.

240

Device found in Iraq, dating to approximately this time, seems to be an electric battery. Even older copper vases have been found that appear to have been electroplated with silver.

520

The start of Western monasticism will keep learning alive in Christian Europe.

598

The first school in England, at Canterbury.

600 -1000

The horse is used for a multitude of purposes throughout the Middle Ages, including war, leisure, tournaments, carrying messages, and agriculture.

640

Windmill invented, Persia.

740

Moors invade Spain, bringing learning and advanced culture.

793

Caliph Haroun-el-Raschid establishes a paper factory in Baghdad, with Chinese workmen.

800

Charlemagne encourages a revival of learning, the "Carolingian Renaissance."

813

In Baghdad, "House of Knowledge" preserves ancient Greek scientific writing.

850

The Chinese use some form of gunpowder in making fireworks to celebrate religious festivals.

875

A Moorish doctor attaches wings and feathers to his body to make the first glider flight in Andalusia, Spain.

900

China's Tang Dynasty has courier system with more than 1,600 stations.

970

Chinese government introduces paper money.

1002

Leif Eriksson discovers North America.

Reading stone invented -- a glass sphere that magnified when laid on top of reading materials.

Murasaki Shikabu's Tale of Genji, is the world's first novel.

1035

Paper recycled in Japan.

1048

Pi Sheng, a Chinese commoner, fabricates movable type using clay.

1050

Astrolabes arrive in Europe from the East.

1086

The Domesday Book, census of people and property, reveals life in England.

1095

First Crusade

1131

Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam dies after writing the Rubáiyát.

1140

Paper made in Egypt using recycled mummy-wrappers.

1151

First use of explosives in war, by China.

1155

Map of western China is the oldest known printed map.

1168

Oxford University is founded.

1180

Fixed steering rudder in China (first control mechanism).

1200

The University of Paris is granted its charter, starts mail, messenger service.

French Dominicans begin the Inquisition to snuff out heresy.

1206

Turkish mechanical genius, Al-Jazari, produces most important engineering text to date, describing over 50 innovative devices in minute detail, including water clocks and pumps.

1215

The Magna Carta sets limits on a king's power.

1233

First coal is mined in Newcastle, England.

1234

Koreans use movable metal type.

1242

Roger Bacon, an English Franciscan monk, produces a secret formula for "gunpowder": saltpetre 41.2; charcoal 29.4; sulphur 29.4. To achieve a faster rate of burning, Bacon distills saltpeter -- the oxygen producing ingredient.

1255

Paper mill in Genoa, Italy.

1267

Roger Bacon builds a camera obscura to show optical illusions.

1268

Roger Bacon's On Experimental Science supports inductive reasoning.

1271-95

Marco Polo journeys to China establishing the overland trade route. He leaves China in 1292 and three years later arrives home.

1271

Free daily newspapers and mass-circulation booklets in China.

1280

Al-Hasan al-Rammah, a Syrian military historian, describes rockets (Chinese arrows) and recipes for making gunpowder in "The Book of Fighting on Horseback and With War Engines."

1284

Italian, Salvino D'Armate, is credited with inventing the first wearable eye glasses.

1290

French astronomer Guillaume de Saint Cloud describes concept of a camera.

1298

Belt driven spinning wheel

1305

Taxis family begins private postal service in Europe.

1309 First known use of paper in England

1328

Invention of sawmill spurs shipbuilding.

1335

Guido da Vigevano designs a wind-driven vehicle - a windmill type drive to gears and thus to wheels. Never built.

Clocks in Europe.

1342

In France, mathematician Levi ben Gershon writes theory of photography.

1381                          

Anne of Bohemia popularizes the sidesaddle style of riding for ladies.

1387

Geoffrey Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales.

1405

Admiral Cheng Ho begins his voyages for Emperor Chu Ti. The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne rules the South Pacific and Indian Ocean until 1433.

1406

Ptolemy's geography is introduced in Europe.

1440

Possible date of Johnannes Gutenberg's first printing effort.

1450

Newsletters begin circulating in Europe

Africans carry culture with them as 400 years of slave exports to West begins.

1450

Gutenberg uses press to print poem and Papal indulgences.

Invention of the printing press spurs wide distribution of navigation tables and ship plans. Ptolemy's geography is published and widely accepted.

1452-1519

Host of mechanical inventions by Leonardo da Vinci.

1453

Mehmet II conquers Constantinople.

1455

Gutenberg publishes the Bible.

1472

Dante's epic poem, The Divine Comedy, is printed.

1474

German astronomer "Regiomontanus" is the first to use printing for science.

1476

Caxton produces first book printed in English.

1490

Mainspring invented by Peter Hele, or Henlein, a locksmith of Nurnburg. About this time the small domestic, or table clock made its appearance.

Leonardo da Vinci begins documenting his aerodynamic theories and ideas for flying machines.

1492

German map-maker Martin Behaim constructs the first globe.

Columbus sets sail.

1493- 1519                   

Explorers for Spain, such as Christopher Columbus, and Herando Cortez, re-introduce the horse to the Americas. These explorers record that indigenous Americans have never seen horses and are both in terror and awe of the animal.

1497

John Cabot sights "new found land" while searching for Northwest Passage.

1507

Map shows the New World, called America, as separate continent.

1510

The first watch was made at about this time.

1512

England begins construction of double-deck warships.

1518

Trithemius produces first printed Western book on cryptology.

1519

Magellan begins his journey to circumnavigate the world with five ships and 270 men

Leonardo da Vinci dies after lifetime of incomparable art and inventive writing.

1521

April 27, Magellan killed by natives in the Philippines.

1522

September 6, eighteen of Magellan's crew and one ship return.

1527

Sack of Rome

1534

First Frankfurt Book Fair

1535

Guglielmo de Loreno developed what is considered to be a true diving bell.

1536

A newspaper is printed: the Gazetta in Venice.

1537

Gerardus Mercator goes into business as globe and map maker.

1543

Pacific Northwest claimed by Spain

Nicolas Copernicus' On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres places sun at the center of our universe.

1559

Pope Paul IV issues Index of Forbidden Books

1560

In Italy, the camera obscura shrinks from